Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday expressed his disappointment over the Middle East Quartet’s recent report on the stalled peace process and has instructed his people to not cooperate with the international group.

“We have published our position on the Quartet commission, and we said this report is not fit for the task of peace,” Abbas said, the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa reported.

“We are very sorry that this is the position, and we hope the United Nation Security Council will not adopt this report,” Abbas said.

In their report issued last week, the Middle East Quartet – the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia – said blamed both sides for the stalled peace process. While the report criticized Israel’s ongoing construction in the disputed territories, a common complaint by the Palestinians, it also took Palestinian leaders to task for not “consistently and clearly condemning specific terrorist attacks” and for glorifying terrorists as “heroic martyrs.”

As such, Abbas has reportedly instructed his political party, the Fatah Central Committee, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to stop cooperating with the with the Middle East Quartet.

“It does not meet our expectations as a nation living under a foreign colonial military occupation,” said senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat, claiming the report “attempts to equalize responsibilities between a people under occupation and foreign military occupier.”